{"id":71736,"date":"2026-02-01T01:20:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T04:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/888360973"},"modified":"2026-02-01T01:20:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T04:20:06","slug":"opinion-the-case-for-low-tech-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/01\/opinion-the-case-for-low-tech-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: The case for low-tech learning"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It was a promise too good to be true.<\/p>\n

Imagine every fourth grader on earth having the world\u2019s best teachers, every classic book and instant access to any field of study right at their fingertips. While that sounds like the current buzz around artificial intelligence, futurists in the early 2010s used those exact words to sell us on cellphones and laptops in the classroom. <\/p>\n

We were told the \u201csage on the stage\u201d teacher was a relic of the past. Software would customize learning for every child and high-speed internet would make anything possible.<\/p>\n

But something happened on the way to \u201ceducation heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, in 2026, so many of us are desperately trying to go \u201cback to the future.\u201d Our rush to digitize every second of the school day has landed with a dull thud. Across the country, states are rolling back the constant \u201cding\u201d of notifications and the lure of social media that distracts everyone from young students to adult learners.<\/p>\n

Are phones the true villain? None of us long for the not so golden days when we had to kick a sibling off the landline just to dial into the \u201cknowledge superhighway\u201d on a clunky Windows 95 desktop. <\/p>\n

Perhaps we\u2019re blaming technology for our own social anxiety \u2014 or maybe we should focus more on government overreach in the classroom.<\/p>\n

Since Nobel Laureate Gary Becker<\/a>, a University of Chicago economist, first popularized the term \u201chuman capital,\u201d economists have studied the role that education plays in boosting human achievement, developing our workforce and growing our economy. Given that education is key to human flourishing, it is incredibly important that we get the way we teach right.<\/p>\n

Education has the potential to increase wages, health, social capital and family happiness. However, reduced quality in education can damage or limit a student\u2019s prospects before they even reach adulthood.<\/p>\n

Can technology replace teachers? <\/h3>\n

Economists think of education as a recipe: Ingredients like teachers, desks and student talent produce an outcome such as high test scores or a good career. The key is figuring out which education ingredients blended in the right way yield the best improvement for the public dollar.<\/p>\n

So did adding laptops or cellphones to our stew of classroom ingredients help a teacher reach more students, or are they a poor replacement <\/i>for the teacher?<\/p>\n

For a decade, well-meaning policymakers and stakeholders have essentially replaced teachers with screens without any proof it actually works. Many in the edu-tech industry pushed \u201cone laptop per desk\u201d or moved students to online programs absent compelling evidence that kids were actually learning more, developing more positive character or getting better jobs.<\/p>\n

Now rigorous research is finally trickling in, and the results are sobering. At West Point, researchers<\/a> randomly split cadets into two groups: one that used laptops and one that banned them. The cadets who stayed offline showed much higher learning gains.<\/p>\n

A similar study during the COVID-19 pandemic found that West Point cadets in online courses<\/a> performed significantly worse. In fact, their learning loss was as severe as the disruption students faced after Hurricane Katrina<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Why? Because students lost the connection between instructors and peers. Similar studies from large lecture halls<\/a> to for-profit colleges<\/a> to middle schoolers<\/a> show the same thing: Online learning often hurts the very students it\u2019s meant to help.<\/p>\n

Social media adds another layer of harm. One study<\/a> compared college students who got access to Facebook early to those who got it later. As soon as social media arrived on campus, depression rates spiked because of \u201cunfavorable social comparison\u201d \u2014 the act of feeling worse about your life while looking at someone else\u2019s highlight reel. This mental health blow directly tanked academic performance.<\/p>\n

These harmful comparisons happen when youth see (mostly) clothed people online. But abundant sexually explicit media only adds the body blow for teenagers. Over 280 studies on adolescence and porn<\/a> from psychology, neuroscience, and sociology, along with 17 different literature reviews<\/a>, show evidence of the pervasive effects of pornography on adolescent brains, emotions, relationships, cognition, and overall well-being and mental health. <\/p>\n

Needless to say, compulsive use of screens for a variety of reasons can be an enormous drain on any education. <\/p>\n

These results should worry every parent and administrator. Outside of the home, teachers are the most important mentors a child has. A high-quality kindergarten teacher can boost a student\u2019s lifetime earnings by hundreds of thousands of dollars<\/a>. Wherever children find it, that human connection is the \u201csecret sauce\u201d of success, and technology is thinning it out.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, some policymakers are pushing back. Florida recently implemented a \u201cbell-to-bell\u201d cellphone ban<\/a> with a similar bill now proposed by lawmakers in the Utah Legislature. While discipline issues initially ticked up \u2014 mostly from teachers catching kids with phones \u2014 test scores improved dramatically by the second year.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t mean all technology is bad. Computer-assisted learning<\/a> that helps students \u201ccatch up\u201d after school when a teacher is not available can be incredibly effective. Technology is a powerful tool when it complements a great teacher, but it is a miserable substitute for one.<\/p>\n

In a nation pulled apart by algorithms designed to keep us in silos, the best place to start \u201cde-digitizing\u201d is the classroom. It is time to put the screens away and focus on each other again. It\u2019s a good move for our kids \u2014 and probably not a bad idea for adults, either.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… even reach adulthood. Can technology<\/span> replace teachers? Economists think … . Many in the edu-tech<\/span> industry pushed \u00e2\u0080\u009cone laptop … sauce\u00e2\u0080\u009d of success, and technology<\/span> is thinning it out. Fortunately … can be incredibly effective. Technology<\/span> is a powerful tool when …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}